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Significance of environmental footprints for evaluating sustainability and security of development

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Abstract

This contribution presents the selected categories of environmental footprints related to the planetary boundaries and threats to human security. The analysis covers the footprint family of indicators that usually consists of ecological, carbon or more precisely greenhouse gas and water footprints and also sometimes the energy footprint. The other assessed footprints that are important for ecosystem health in regard to water, health, food, and land and species security are nitrogen, phosphorus, biodiversity and land footprints, which have already transgressed the planetary boundaries and are therefore outside the safe operating space. The importance of the various footprints is discussed and the simultaneous analysis of footprints is emphasised as a major direction of research and practice. The comprehensive set of environmental impacts, e.g. set of presented footprints in this contribution, should be considered and should incorporate the burdening and unburdening concept from the life cycle perspective. Some applications of the presented environmental footprints are offered, and conclusions and remarks provided for future observation.

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Abbreviations

BF:

Biodiversity footprint

BP:

British petroleum

BSI:

British Standards Institution

CCS:

Carbon (CO2) capture and storage

CF:

Carbon footprint

EC:

European Commission

EF:

Ecological footprint

ENF:

Energy footprint

ELCD:

European reference Life Cycle Database

ESRL:

Earth System Research Laboratory

FP:

Foot print

GHG:

Green house gas (emissions)

GWP:

Global warming potential

ISIS:

Institute of Science in Society

ISO:

International Organization for Standardization

LCA:

Life cycle analysis or life cycle assessment

LF:

Land footprint

NF:

Nitrogen footprint

NREL:

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

PAS:

Publicly available specification

PCA:

Principal component analysis

PF:

Phosphorus footprint

PLS-VIP:

Partial least square-variable importance in projection

SD:

Sustainable development

TNEP:

The natural edge project

UNEP:

United Nations Environment Programme

UNFCCC:

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

WCED:

World Commission on Environment and Sustainable Development

WF:

Water footprint

WFN:

Water footprint network

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for financial support from the EC FP7 project ‘ENER/FP7/296003/EFENIS ‘Efficient Energy Integrated Solutions for Manufacturing Industries—EFENIS’, from Slovenian Research Agency (Program No. P2-0032) and from the Hungarian State and the European Union under project TÁMOP-4.2.2/A-11/1/KONV-2012-0072—Design and optimisation of modernisation and efficient operation of energy supply and utilisation systems using renewable energy sources and ICTs.

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  1. Centre for Process Integration and Intensification – CPI2, Faculty of Information Technology, University of Pannonia, Egyetem utca 10, Veszprém, 8200, Hungary

    Lidija Čuček, Jiří Jaromír Klemeš & Petar Sabev Varbanov

  2. Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Maribor, Smetanova ulica 17, 2000, Maribor, Slovenia

    Zdravko Kravanja

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  1. Lidija Čuček
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Correspondence to Lidija Čuček.

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Čuček, L., Klemeš, J.J., Varbanov, P.S. et al. Significance of environmental footprints for evaluating sustainability and security of development. Clean Techn Environ Policy 17, 2125–2141 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-015-0972-3

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